Twelve student golfers will participate in the 20^th Collegiate Shootout as a prelude to the annual Bob Burgess-Thomas McCormac charity golf outing to be held June 8 at the Hershey Golf Club.

The collegiate golfers – representing 11 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities and Pennsylvania State University – will tee off at 7:30 a.m. on the Hershey East Course. They will play one 18-hole round under National Collegiate Athletic Association rules.

They will be competing for at least $6,000 in scholarships for their schools. The shootout will conclude around noon, after which the charity portion of the event will begin. The student athletes will be going after prizes worth $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 that will go to the general scholarship funds of the schools of the top three finishers.

This year’s field is wide open. Three-time defending champion Matt Guyton of Clarion University of Pennsylvania will not compete for an unprecedented fourth straight title. Guyton of Franklin set a Collegiate Shootout record as a freshman in 2002, firing a one-round 69 to win the event by four strokes. He won the 2003 event by two strokes, shooting a 74 in a light rain, and won last year’s event in a playoff after scoring a round of 70.

Returning for a second appearance in the annual event this year will be Eric Anderson of White Oak, a junior at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Josh Smith of Lock Haven, a senior at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania; and Matt Walsh of Malvern, a junior at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Anderson finished third last year, shooting a 75 and finishing five strokes behind Guyton and Millersville University of Pennsylvania’s Scott Micklewright.

Other participants this year will be Todd Brown of Carlisle, a sophomore at West Chester University of Pennsylvania; Corey Gast of Lancaster, a freshman at Millersville University of Pennsylvania; Casey Geyer of New Cumberland, a senior at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania; Lou Jesioliewic of Pittsburgh, a senior at Clarion University of Pennsylvania; Anthony Lent, a freshman at California University of Pennsylvania; Trey M. Mallicone of Uniontown, a freshman at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania; Christin Pacacha of Williamsport, a freshman at Penn State; Eric Shaffer of Conneautville, a sophomore at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; and Holly Shubilla of Wilkes-Barre, a sophomore at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

The Burgess-McCormac charity golf outing has been held each year since 1985. Since its inception, the event has raised more than $1 million for various charitable organizations. This year’s event will benefit Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research and the Penn State Medical Center Children’s Hospital project.

The annual outing began as a memorial to Bob Burgess, a government relations specialist for Beneficial Financial Management. He and a daughter, Pamela, died in an automobile accident in 1983. The event was renamed in 2002 to also memorialize Thomas McCormac, a government relations specialist with Pugliese Associates and former chief of staff for now state House Speaker John Perzel. McCormac died in an automobile accident in 2001.

In addition to the three scholarships for which the student golfers compete, The Burgess-McCormac Memorial Foundation, which operates the event, also contributes a separate $3,000 scholarship each year to Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where Pamela Burgess had been a student.

With nearly 106,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. The 14 PASSHE universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. More than 400,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.